Everyone compares the Kindle and Nook to one another. One feature that is often touted by Nook owners is their ability to "lend" books to others. Kindle users have waited and waited for this, and finally, according to the Amazon Kindle team, this feature is coming.

Amazon will introduce lending for Kindle later this year which will allow you to loan Kindle books that you have purchased to another Kindle or Kindle app user. Each book can only be lent out once at a time, and only for a 14 day period. During this period the lender cannot read this book, just like what happens with real books.

Amazon does happen to note however that not all of the books in the Kindle Store will be lendable. This will be an option that is up to the publisher or person holding the rights, much like the Text-To-Speech enabling. Hopefully publishers will take more kindly to the lending feature, as not all are incredibly thrilled by the thought of their books being read out loud.

The Kindle Team also noted in their post that they are making Kindle newspapers and magazines readable to all users of Kindle apps. Previously these were exclusive to Kindle owners, but now as long as you have a Kindle app and a subscription you are free to read it. The functionality should be coming in a few weeks first for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch Kindle apps, then to Android and other devices.

Including lending will undoubtedly remove some of the DRM uncertainty of the Kindle, and should bring more users into the Kindle scene.